He’s the nicest person, but I wish we’d never hired him…

Some of the nicest people I’ve worked with have been useless at their jobs. Sad, but true.

I’m sure you’ve known people like that too.

How does this happen? After all, you know you went through a tough selection process, so all your co-workers did too, didn’t they?

And you are probably absolutely correct. No doubt they had a great CV, answered all the questions put to them with great conviction and generally came across in the interviews as great people.

The trouble is, no-one actually tested their skills for the role.

Some people are great at selling themselves in an interview situation. They make the most of every shred of slightly relevant experience and do a great job of convincing the interviewer that they would fit right in to the team, they are so nice!

But beware – some people are great at being interviewed. Some people are great in the job.

This is not always the same person.

To get over this make sure you know what you really need and are checking for those skills. And you really must rank those particular skills higher than the candidates’ ability to be interviewed.

There are many jobs where social skills are not very important but it’s hard to get past that in an interview if you don’t know what you are looking for. So you can often overlook a very good candidate just because they are shy or awkward compared to a poor candidate who is warm and friendly.

And the chances are that if your new recruit isn’t very good at their new job, they won’t be very happy either. And one unhappy person can set off a whole cascade of misery…

Our recruitment service starts by helping you to define the skills needed for the role you need to fill. You might want someone to work well in a team, but do you really need a party animal?